The Vale boss, whose reputation at the club was forged on his no-nonsense defending, likes the look of 21-year-old Smith and 24-year-old Anderson.

“I’ve been very happy with how they’ve done in the games,” said boss Aspin. “When you play at centre-half you do improve as you get older, but that youth can be a good thing as well.

“I like the attitude of both of them. I can rely on them in that they will always give 100 per cent, they are very competitive, they will stick their head in where it hurts and they aren’t bothered about getting kicked.

“So they are very good to work with and it’s my job and the coaching staff’s job, to help and try to improve them.”

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Aspin, whose side are chasing a fourth straight win when they entertain Swindon this weekend, added that the pair were crucial to his desire to defend higher up the pitch to offer his strike force support in numbers.

“One of the keys was to try and not sit too deep. We were trying to condense the pitch so we could get into contact with Tom (Pope) up front.

“And they are a big part in doing that because if they sit too deep they drag everybody else deeper, then we can’t get up to support the striker, so it’s important the back four keep doing that.”

Port Vale celebrate Tom Pope's winner in the 1-0 victory at League Two high-fliers Exeter City at the weekend. (Image: Gerard Austin)

He also looks set to continue with Anthony Kay, a centre-half by trade, in a defensive midfield role following his successful introduction there at Exeter last Saturday.

Aspin explained: “They played three at the back before I arrived and we only had two days to look at it, so I felt it better to go with the back three in my first game against Grimsby rather than changing it in the space of a couple of days.

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“I thought they did reasonably well but we all had a discussion and for the Cheltenham game decided to go with a back four.

“Then I looked at the team set up against Morecambe. I felt we were a little bit open for an away game at this level.

“I thought they got through us a bit too easy in terms of getting straight on to our back four. So I thought we had to be stronger in midfield. I looked at the personnel we had and felt that Anthony could do a job there.”